2007 IAAF Grand Prix Review – Part TWO

MonteWith its opening fixture in early March and a closing date in September, the 2007 IAAF World Athletics Tour - Golden League, Super Grand Prix and Grand Prix - offered a six-month packed attractive, entertaining season which climaxed at the IAAF / VTB Bank World Athletics Final, Stuttgart, Germany (22 – 23 Sep).

Click here for 2007 World Athletics Final

Click here for 2007 IAAF Golden League review

The Super Grand Prix and Grand Prix meets were highlighted by Haile Gebrselassie and Asafa Powell’s World records in Ostrava and Rieti respectively.

David Powell reminds us of some of the highlights of the meetings which took place July to September 2007…

Athens, Greece
2 July

Russian athletes made a huge impression on the Athens Grand Prix, led by Tatyana Lebedeva, who recorded a world leading Triple Jump mark of 15.14m, and Gulnara Samitova-Galkina, who underlined her position as the world’s quickest 3000m steeplechaser. Samitova-Galkina’s 9:11.68 was the fourth quickest by a woman, giving her the five fastest times in the history of the event. Kenya’s Eunice Jepkorir, the runner-up, set an African and Commonwealth record of 9:14.52 for second place on the all-time list.

If Yuriy Borzakovskiy ever compiles a video of his top 10 late finishes at 800m, this one should be on it. The Russian was some 15 metres down at the bell but surged from eighth to first in the last 100m to win in 1:44.38. It was quite a day for Russia in the middle distances as Svetlana Cherkasova won the women’s 800m (1:59.03) and Yelena Soboleva the 1500m (3:58.3, hand timed). This meant defeats for Kenya’s Janeth Jepkosgei (800m) and Bahrain’s Maryam Yusuf Jamal (1500m), sights that would become rare during the remainder of the season.

Zagreb, Croatia
4 July

Endless rain drenched the Croatian capital throughout the day, keeping the crowds away and severely affecting performances in the Hanzekovic Memorial Grand Prix meeting. Making the best of the conditions, Irving Saladino, of Panama, won the men’s Long Jump by almost half a metre, with 8.45m, taking his unbeaten record for the season to four competitions. After impressive victories in Ostrava and Athens, Svetlana Cherkasova was unable to win a third 800m race in seven days as she was surprisingly beaten by Lucia Klocova, a young Slovak, who recorded 2:01.56 to consign the Russian to second place.

Lausanne, Switzerland
10 July

The Athletissima Super Grand Prix meeting witnessed an extraordinary run by Tyson Gay. The chill clearly affected other runners but not the American who won the 200m in 19.78, finishing three metres clear of runner-up Usain Bolt of Jamaica (20.11) while Wallace Spearmon was another three metres back in third place (20.42). The 1-2-3 would be repeated in the World Championships, in Osaka, seven weeks later. Gay was competing for the first time since his 9.84/19.62 double at the US Championships three weeks earlier.

In the meeting in which he had set a 110m Hurdles World record of 12.88 the year before, Liu Xiang won again, this time in 13.01. Maryam Yusuf Jamal, born in Ethiopia, competing for Bahrain, but living in Lausanne, gave some claim on a home victory in the 1500m but only after a nervous last 300m. She led by almost 30m but, struggling for form thereafter, and looking behind repeatedly, she was almost caught by her pursuers but held on to win by two strides.

Sheffield, Great Britain
15 July

Oscar Pistorius was the hot topic, Kenenisa Bekele the hot athlete, but there was nothing hot about the weather at the Norwich Union British Grand Prix. It was chilly and wet yet Bekele won the 3000m in a personal best and year’s fastest time of 7:26.69, leaving runner-up Craig Mottram 40m adrift.

Bekele’s effort supplanted Haile Gebrselassie, his fellow Ethiopian, as holder of the fastest time on a British track. Gebrselassie’s mark (7:29.69) had dated back to 1999.

In the 400m Pistorius, the so-called Blade Runner, having lined up in a B event in the Golden League meeting in Rome two nights earlier, now met the world’s elite for the first time. But his much-hyped appearance in a field which included Jeremy Wariner, the Olympic and World champion, proved ill conceived. Wariner slipped as he left his blocks and went no farther.

Pistorius, from South Africa, was disqualified for running out of his lane but only after finishing a distant last, while victory went to Wariner’s fellow American, Angelo Taylor (45.25).

Such was the weather that Tyson Gay failed even to get close to 10 seconds for the 100m. With his slowest run for a year in a final (10.13), Gay was still a convincing winner. Liu Xiang was similarly affected, China’s World record holder winning the 110m Hurdles in 13.23. In a surprise home victory, Andy Baddeley defeated a 1500m field which included soon-to-be World 1500/5000m champion Bernard Lagat. The Kenyan-born American led at 1200m but Baddeley outpaced him to win in a personal best 3:34.74. One of only two home winners, Nicola Sanders was the other, in the 400m (51.01).

Madrid, Spain
21 July

Jumpers stole the show in the Meeting de Atletismo. This Grand Prix meeting was treated to fine performances from Blanka Vlasic, with a Croatia women’s outdoor High Jump record (2.05m), and from Nelson Evora, with a Portuguese record 17.51m for the men’s Triple Jump. And, in the women’s Long Jump, Russia’s Tatyana Levedeva, the Olympic champion, won with her best mark for three years (7.15m) while runner-up Naide Gomes improved her Portuguese record to 7.01m. Lithuania’s double World and Olympic Discus champion, Virgilijus Alekna, recorded his 35th successive win but would add only two more before his defeat at the World Championships, in Osaka.

Monaco
25 July

Mbulaeni Mulaudzi returned to winning form in style after his surprise defeat in the All Africa Games with the first sub 1:44 800m time of the year at the Herculis Super Grand Prix in the Stade Louis II. Recording 1:43.74, the South African passed Bahrain’s Saad Youssef Kamel and Morocco’s Amine Laalou in the last few metres to take his victory.

The women’s 3000m also witnessed a top-class performance as Mariem Alaoui Selsouli, from Morocco, claimed a victory in 8:29.52.

Just 10 days after his record-breaking 3000m in Sheffield, Kenenisa Bekele was again in sub 7:30 form. Although not quite as quick as his previous outing (7:26.69) he won again, this time in 7:29.32.

London, Great Britain
3 August

Drama in the field was the theme of the Norwich Union London Grand Prix, a Super Grand Prix meeting staged at Crystal Palace in glorious weather.

Reese Hoffa, in the Shot Put, and Chris Tomlinson, in the Long Jump, both produced last-round victories. While Tomlinson delivered a British triumph for the home crowd, the shot was even more exciting.

Reese Hoffa opened with 21.35m and his fellow American, Christian Cantwell, with 20.67m. Cantwell then recorded four fouls while Hoffa improved to 21.58m in the fifth round. Cantwell was in fourth place as he took the penultimate throw of the competition which, at 21.66m, thrust him into the lead. With his last effort of the night, Hoffa responded with a personal best 22.43m for 10th place on the World all-time list. After five rounds of the Long Jump, Brian Johnson, of the United States, led Tomlinson by virtue of a better second-best jump. Then, with both men on 8.14m, the Briton produced a final-round mark of 8.16m for victory.

Two high quality 400m races - Jeremy Wariner winning the men’s in 44.05 and Sanya Richards the women’s in 49.79 - ensured that the track events kept pace with the field for entertainment. Wariner was run close by his fellow American, LaShawn Merritt (44.23), and Richards by her United States compatriot, Allyson Felix (50.17).

Stockholm, Sweden
7 August

With almost the perfect combination of world-class performances and home victories, the DN Galan Super Grand Prix was one of the tour highlights of the year. Blanka Vlasic, with a 2.07m High Jump, and Kenenisa Bekele, with a 7:25.79 3000m, recorded marks which would survive as the best of the season while World and Olympic 400m champion Jeremy Wariner recorded a personal best 43.50. There was even novelty value with Sanya Richards running - and impressing - in the 100m.

Less than four weeks later, Wariner would go on to record 43.45 to retain his World title in Osaka, becoming the outright third fastest man in history. Here he had to settle for joint third quickest as his 43.50, an improvement of 0.12 on his previous best, placed him alongside Quincy Watts. Only Wariner’s fellow Americans, Michael Johnson (43.18) and Butch Reynolds (43.29) lay ahead.

Vlasic continued to dominate her event, as she had since her only defeat of the season, in Oslo in June. Clearing a Croatian record 2.07m, she not only won easily, she recorded a height bettered outdoors only by Stefka Kostadinova. Bekele completed a top-three sweep of the fastest 3000m times of the year - all within 23 days - when he followed up his runs in Sheffield (7:26.69) and Monaco (7:29.32) with the best of them all, 7:25.79.

In a season during which she would go on to take a half share of a US$1m jackpot for her sequence of six wins at 400m in the Golden League, Richards was beaten at that distance here but aroused just as much interest in the 100m. She was shoulder to shoulder with Me’Lisa Barber for 90m before her fellow American pulled clear to win in 11.03, with Richards recording 11.05. Richards was a double runner-up on the night, losing to Allyson Felix (49.70). Again Richards was 2 hundredths of a second behind. For the home crowd, victories for Sweden were recorded by Stefan Holm in the High Jump (2.35m), Carolina Klüft in the Long Jump (6.65m), and Susanna Kallur in the 100m Hurdles (12.66).

Rieti, Italy
9 September

What a way for the curtain to come down on the IAAF Grand Prix season. Just two weeks after his feeble effort in the 100m at the World Championships in Osaka, Asafa Powell lowered the World record for this most prestigious of distances to 9.74. And he didn’t even wait for the final! The Jamaican, who had managed only third place in Osaka after giving up towards the end, broke the record in his heat. At a venue situated at an altitude of 402m, and in warm weather, Powell also had the benefit of a 1.7mps wind.

Other highlights included Kenya’s Janeth Jepkosgei clocking 1:57.71 to beat Maria Mutola’s 800m track record, Japan’s Koji Murofushi winning the Hammer Throw with a last round throw of 82.62m, and Cuba’s Yargelis Savigne taking a Triple Jump victory with 14.92m. Murofushi won by 1cm and Savigne repeated her World Championships triumph over Tatyana Lebedeva.

David Powell for the IAAF

Click here for Part ONE (March to June)